Sesshomaru's Rose
by dawnmiko
Summary: AU SESSKAG Sesshomaru journeys to find a cure to Rin's mortality because he doesn't want her to grow old and die. He hears of a legendary rose, but what he finds on top of Mount Hakurei is so much more than a single rose.
1. Chapter 1

_Sesshomaru's Rose_

_Starting Date: October 7, 2007_

Chapter One

_Once upon a time, in a far away land, on top of a dark, dark mountain, there bloomed a single rose. Surrounded by poisonous thorns, the rose bloomed each morning and when the moon rose, it wilted away and died, only to be reborn with the sun's warm kiss blessed it again._

_Mortal men talked of their fear of death, but never of the cure . . . the person who plucked this rose from the top of the dark, dark mountain, would live forever._

Sesshomaru had never been one to believe in fairytales, after all, they were only childrens' bedtime stories. But his beloved ward Rin was dying and he needed a cure. Rin was more than a village orphan, she was his adopted daughter, and he'd be damned if the little human child were to succumb to human frailties.

So, he sought the rose, the rose from his childhood.

He journeyed to find her a cure to her incurable human mortality.

Sesshomaru forged a path through Japan, tracking every lead he got. He conquered demons and Gods for his little human, and he had found her cure. Atop the lonely Mount Hakurei, lay the rose . . . and so much more.

Sesshomaru fought past holy barriers and poisoned thorns, only to find there was no rose at all . . . instead, there was a girl. She was unlike anyone, anything he'd ever seen before, with crystal blue eyes and pale pink lips. Her hair, lustrous and blue-black, hung just right to the small of her back and she wore silken miko's garb that seemed to be just as alive as she.

Her name was Kagome.

She looked upon him with wide cerulean eyes and slowly, gracefully, rose to her feet. In a voice ever-so-small and soft she spoke,

"Who . . . are you?"

Her voice echoed inside his elfin ears, each syllable slipping past the next like the clear blue waters of a koi pond.

"I am the Western Lord,"

He replied, surprised at himself for having responded to the small human girl. But then again, Rin was human, too, and this one reminded him so much of her.

"And you are?"

Her eyes seemed to drain away and he could no longer see the life in them.

"I am Kagome,"

she whispered,

"I am the protector . . . "

And with this she lightly laid her hands over her heart. A soft glow washed over her and the wind whipped gently, stirring her hair and sleeves about her. From her chest appeared a small rose quartz jewel . . . the Jewel of Four Souls . . . The Rose.

His eyes refocused on the jewel, and Sesshoumaru could not help but stare at the still-glowing orb floating placidly above her palms. She seemed just as absorbed in the mythical light as he.

Sesshomaru took a forward step, hand outstretched to touch the jewel . . . but the holy relic revolted against his fingertips and with an audible hiss, he drew back.

Kagome's eyes widened a fraction.

"A demon. . . . ?"

She may have been a miko, but for all her years she'd never witnessed another breathing presence, human or demon. Her eyes slowly revived and she peered up at him as one would a savior, hoping . . .

"You're a demon. . . . "

Her voice was louder now, faster. Sesshomaru was surprised; she did not fear him, at all . . . If anything, she was opening herself more to his presence.

She stepped nearer him, her glittering red hakama billowing slightly at the movement. One hand clutched the jewel tightly, but the other . . . the other reached for him. She desperately tried to find purchase on him, and then he saw . . .

Horrible tangles of the poisoned thorns tore violently up her other leg and held her captive there. She struggled against them and he could smell the blood dripping from her, he could see it pooling around her foot. And in that instant, Sesshomaru saw his Rin, tied down like an animal, desperate, bleeding. He, the great Western Demon, would not stand for this. She was far too innocent for such a fate.

Her fingertips whispered past the white silk haori he wore and he snapped back to reality. Her blood and the poison were all too much.

Sesshomaru shot out to Kagome, ripping her away from the thorns with a slice of his claws, but she was not free for long. The vindictive vines arched back, coiled, and re stuck themselves to her flesh, finding hold around her waist and ankles.

She smiled through the pain. She was dying.He held her to his chest though, keeping the vines away from her tiny and bloodied form.

Kagome's voice cracked when she spoke to him,

"What is . . . your name?"

Foolish girl! How could she ask such questions at a time like this?

Yet he replied all the same, just a single word,

"Sesshomaru."

. . . Did his voice crack like hers had?

She smiled and gently pressed her freezing palm to his cheek.

"Of all those who have sought the Rose,"

her eyes filled with tears,

"You are the only one who forgot himself and had the heart to try . . . "

His grip tightened, not that he knew, but she did.

"To try and save this one . . . Thank you . . . "

She kissed his lips and he could feel how damaged and bruised hers truly were.

"Thank you, Sesshomaru."

Time seemed to stop when she whispered his name and their world flashed before them.


	2. Chapter 2

1In another world at another time, the brilliant light faded and he could see her. Through the green trees her form walked along others, and she was smiling. He hadn't known the girl could smile like that . . .

She seemed so very different, though her scent and her aura were the same. He knew something had taken place . . . something he couldn't even begin to explain. He began to step forward out of the treeline, but something stopped him, and he decided just to watch for now.

They were stopping to make camp, and they were wise, for the sun was falling low on the horizon and the long shadowed fingers of dusk had begun to wisp over the Earth silently, ready to grab whatever they found in the coming night.

There were six of them: The miko, Kagome, and a hanyou who looked a little too familiar for his liking, a taijiya and what seemed to be her pet, a fire-neko, as well as a decidedly amorous monk who seemed to touch the taijiya whenever he could, and finally, a small kitsune, who could have not been older than seven years, attached to the miko's side.

When camp had been set and food had been served, the two women had asked to be excused and they followed an untrodden and winding path to a nearby spring. He wasn't as low as to follow them there and watch as they bathed, but he did listen to them . . .

Cloth rustled and there was a rippling of water . . . then,

"Sango-chan?"

"Ne, Kagome-chan?"

"Have you ever . . . had a dream that seemed so real, and you couldn't tell whether you were awake or dreaming when it ended?"

"Uhm . . . no, I don't think so. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason really," Kagome laughed, waving her hand as if to dismiss the idea entirely. She continued,

"It feels so nice to slow down after such a hard fight." She slid further into the water and caused more ripples to weave through her hair and around her cheeks.

"I still don't think it's too healthy for you to bathe every day Kagome-chan, or sometimes even more than that!" Sango joked.

The two girls laughed and soon settled into a relaxed silence as they let their muscles unwind and their sore feet soak in the mineral-rich pool. Their journey had taken an obvious toll on them and this was their much needed downtime.

After a while, one of them sighed and decided it was probably time to return to camp. The others would surely worry . . . And he waited until he was sure they were decent, until he heard their footsteps returning to the beginning of the path back, before he stepped straight into their heading.

Sango reacted instantly, deftly pulling her hiraikotsu from her back and offering the dangerously sharp end to his person.

"Sesshomaru!" she bit out, taking a protective stance in front of Kagome, who was frozen to her spot, with wide and scared eyes . . . But there was something deeper in them, something that told him that she somehow understood something that only they knew of, something she recognized.

Sesshomaru lost himself in her eyes and his mind's eye played scenes, memories, back to him. Memories slowly flooded his brain and suddenly Sesshomaru remembered himself and who he was, and who they were, and the implications that would arise at his behavior and entrance. His brow knitted together and he took a step forward, holding his hand out at the taijiya. A sickly green miasma seeped from his fingertips and into Sango's unprotected lungs. She fainted.

Two more steps and he was in front of the miko, another step, and half another more, and he was too close. She had to tilt her head up just to meet his eyes. From so close he could see her trembling, and he could taste her fear, her curiosity.

"You . . . you know, don't you . . . " Her voice was a whisper.

"What happened, Kagome," his was equally silent.

She looked as if she were just as lost as he.

"It wasn't just a dream, was it?"

Sesshomaru did not speak for some minutes.

"I. . . do not know what happened . . . but I also do not believe it was a mere dream . . . "

A far away voice yelled, sounding impatient.

"Kagome! Sango! Aren't you two done yet?!"

Sesshomaru turned sharply and he blocked her view of the road she was supposed to be taking back to camp.

He paused,

"I will come for you again, do not fear me . . . We have much to discuss, Kagome."

And only then did he turn his head to look at her one last time before he fled.

Sango stirred, as if the lack of his presence were the exact cure to the poison in her blood. She got back to her feet, holding her head.

"What . . . happened? Kagome?"

A quick lie was all she needed, but she hated doing it.

"Oh! You fainted, I guess the water was a little too hot, ne?"

Kagome smiled as if nothing other than that had happened and hooked Sango's arm over her own shoulder and helped her friend back to camp . . .

But not before glancing back at the spot where Sesshomaru had stood just seconds before. She tried to forget about the odd, butterfly emotions that his eyes burned into her chest when he gave her one last look goodbye, and made her way back to the group.


	3. Chapter 3 Sweet Dreams

The following days passed in normal succession

The following days passed in normal succession. Few leads to Naraku had been uncovered, and those few were shotty at best. Each night Kagome continued her lucid dreams and she became more and more aware of another self in those dreams.

The dream Kagome began shaping out her own small identity in the real Kagome's spirit.

Dreaming ceased to be a spectator's experience and Kagome found herself having the option of free will, the power of movement, of choice. She spent increasingly more and more time accompanying the Sesshomaru her subconscious conjured up. He became increasingly real, too. She hadn't seen him since that night at the hot springs, so she couldn't yet be sure if these dreams and this Sesshomaru were real or simply figments of her own creation. No, she wasn't sure, but she did at least know that these meetings brought her some sort of odd solace. Some feeling of relief from the aching need to know what was going on and why everything that was happening was. In her dreams, sitting casually with the once-monster of her own past, she simply felt… good.

The breeze lifted slightly, tasting of brine and water. Gulls could be heard in the far distance, in harmony with the breaking of waves.

_Small feet with stubby toes dug into the warm damp sand and she sighed softly to herself. Kagome's head dipped back as far as her neck would allow. She sat next to him, her palms supporting the brunt of her weight in the ever-giving sand. She looked to the sky, all curious eyes and soft waves._

"What is it now? That you are thinking of?" Sesshomaru's voice lilted above the ebb of tide. She'd never heard it so soft and at ease anywhere else.

"I don't know yet. I'm waiting for it to come to me." She pulled her chin back down to its normal position and smiled a little in his direction. A man beneath him would have thought her flirting, but he knew Kagome better than that. She was truly so naïve sometimes.

"I do wonder if you remember these dreams." She continued nonchalantly, giving her shoulder a small shrug. He merely smirked a little and turned his gaze back to the ocean.

"It would be better if I didn't, if you didn't either. We both know that." She sighed and agreed in a small voice.

"I'll come for you again, soon. I cannot be so quick with Rin. She is growing quickly, you know. Quite the rambunctious little human girl. I do believe she is beginning to favor you."

At this, Kagome's smile returned.

"I adore her, she is such a sweetheart. Will you bring her next time?"

"Surely, she would love to visit. I fear my company does not suit her as well as yours might. As I said, rambunctious."

Kagome laughed and tossed a small handful of sand at him. It didn't really reach but that didn't really matter. She knew he was teasing her and she was playing along, never intending him true harm. They'd become good friends, after all.

Good friends. That was all. And they were satisfied. A good, impartial friend was what she'd needed recently and it was something he'd always needed, all along.

Here, in their own little warped world, they were the only ones. There was no human nor demon, nor slave nor lord. He was not ashamed of her, and she was not subjective to him. Here they were equals and they were close.

"And what news of your home? Is your family well?"

"Mom and Gramps are fine, Souta was just dumped recently, though." She frowned a little. "Poor kid's heartbroken. He'll be over it soon, I hope. It's kinda why I came home this time… He's growing up and… he was always there for me when Inuyasha and I got into it." Her smile was gone, but pride and trust and love lit her eyes. She was very protective over that little boy and he knew it.

A lesser man would have thought her upset, but he knew her better.

Suddenly her smile was shining again (really, this girl had to be bipolar) and she jumped to her feet, twirling to meet him with her hands behind her back, like an eager child.

"Let's have an adventure!" She beamed.

"An adventure? Of what sort?" Her smile caught on in this place and the freedom of it spread across his lips, too.

"We've been meeting here for a while now, let's go somewhere new." She worried her lip for a small while and then bounced up and down on her toes. "I know! I want to show you something."

She offered her hand to him, and even though they both knew he by no means needed it, he took it and stood alongside her. She backed away, smiling expectantly. His chest swelled a little and he thought: _A lesser man would be overcome with foolish pride._

Slowly, very slowly, for he loved to see her awe at the sight, Sesshomaru allowed his most basic wall slip away and his skin glistened silver white. His jaw pulled back and his nose arced forward, elongating his face in a most animalistic way. Golden bronze eyes faded to ruby and fangs, claws and fur grew beyond human form.

Kagome's eyes grew wider and wider. What a magnificent sight it was to see him transform! Her smiled shined brightly as she waited for him to lower his shoulders so that she might crawl up and sit a the base of his neck, holding onto the shimmering white fur there.

When she reached her favorite spot to settle in, she leaned down to whisper in his ear.

_To the far west there is an ocean and beyond that, a new land. I'm taking you to see the Grand Canyon._

It was twilight by the time he'd bounded into the low mountains of the valley she'd been so excited to see. Of course, it was just as she'd imagined it would be; this was a dream after all. Deep pinks and slowly darkening blues highlighted the sky, bouncing off the red stone gullies and mesas. Shadows were setting deeply into the ravines so beautifully hewn out of the one massive set. Kagome didn't climb down but rather ran her fingers though the soft fur surrounding her; her eyes caught and changed colors, reflecting the sky on two chocolate brown canvases.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? Do you like it?"

The giant head before her dipped slightly in what she figured was a nod, but suddenly, she was alone in the thin air, enveloped in a flash of light and falling steadily. Her voice cracked, ready to scream, but before she could an arm reached out and caught her. She was pulled hard into his chest as the two of them, one looking very human and the other very much like a demigod, fell. He smirked a little, and they gently descended to the stone flat below them. She barely even felt the landing, but he didn't quite let her go when her feet touched the earth.

Shakily, she looked up at him, her face still wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Her heart fluttered in her chest, her stomach still doing little summersaults from the fall. His hand tightened infinitesimally around her waist. She felt his heart flutter, too, underneath her fingertips.

_Too close. Too close! _Her mind hollered at her, somewhere beyond his eyes. Apparently, his mind was yelling at him, too. They both stayed like that for some seconds before he let her go. She forced her attention to the setting sun across the canyon and tried to play the red of her cheeks off as its warm rays on her skin. She was too busy with herself to notice he was looking away from her, the tiniest bit red, too.

They spent the rest of the evening watching the sun play off the mesa and its stunning outcropping, and then bore witness to the stars playing on their dark field of blue.

Little more was said for some time before Kagome, ever the buoyant one, lightened the mood again with her aimless rambling.

A lesser man would have ruined his friendship with this girl. But Sesshomaru was _stronger_ than that.

Slowly the scenery faded into grey and small holes deteriorated, piece by piece sending small glittering sparks into what remained of their dream. Kagome smiled and said goodbye, that she so looked forward to seeing him and his Rin soon. He promised it would not be much longer and smiled back as he, too, faded away…


End file.
